Tuesday, September 9, 2014

5 for the Fifth: my belated answers to Ruth's questions!

So, I’m late with this, but I do
love me some Flixchatter, and I
especially love Ruth’s 5 for the Fifth
series, and whenever I can I try and participate with my own post to answer her
five questions. In all the chaos at my
house, trying to prepare for our Disney trip and trying to wrap up some posts I
had planned for the blog here, I completely forgot to jump on this back ON THE
FIFTH, which is when I like to play along, but better late than never, right?

So, if you haven’t read through
Ruth’s post, do that here first. If you’re
new to Flixchatter, add it to your
blog roll NOW, since her blog is incredible (one of my personal favorites), and
you’ll not want to miss another episode of 5
for the Fifth.

And now, to answer your questions
Ruth, here we go!

1) What’s your favorite film
from the talented Paddy Considine (in honor of his 41st birthday,
which was on THE FIFTH!)?

Ok, so I’m not as familiar with
Considine as I should be, and I’m shamed for that. I know him from some of his early 00’s fare,
when he was being singled out in reviews and toted as an up and coming talent,
but he never really made it into the mainstream cinemas and I honestly kind of
forgot about him. I know; I’m disgusted
with myself. That being said, if I’m
going just on the movie itself, then my favorite that I’ve seen is easily Cinderella Man, which is a film I feel
is really underrated.

But, that isn’t his film at all.

So now, let’s talk about one of
his films…In America. All this shaming myself for not following his
career and I can pat myself on the back for giving him a FISTI NOMINATION back
in 2003 for his tender and heartbreaking turn in the aforementioned film. I think I’ve mentioned this before (around
Father’s Day, and probably for Ruth’s 5
for the Fifth that month) that Considine’s performance in that film is my
favorite representation of fatherhood on film.
The love he has for his family, the caring, the passion, the concern,
the worry, the struggle…it’s so real.
When my wife was pregnant with our first child, we were attending a
birthing class when the teacher asked all the fathers to tell their favorite
cinematic father, and I went on talked in great length about this
performance. It’s just beautiful.

2) What are your thoughts on
this trailer for Paradise Lost?

I love Benicio del Toro, and I
really think that Hutcherson has some untapped talent (which was almost tapped
in The Kids are All Right, and yet he
had, by far, the least interesting role), but this looks like some ‘trying to
be important by really trying to be an action movie for teenagers’ kind of
flick that Paul Walker would have starred in back in 2003. It just looks…cheap. Not in a production way, since it does look
slick, but in a material kind of way.
Like, the actual meat of the film looks cheap. This is probably horribly inaccurate and
trumped up to be something teenage boys will get pumped over and walk out of
the theater trying to gun down drug lords (or want to be drug lords) and its
sole purpose is probably to make Hutcherson a commodity, but this is one of
those films that will wind up in the $5 bin at Walmart next year and will be
that forgettable action flick that remains a stain on del Toro’s resume.

Hutcherson who?

3) Which actor/actress (from TV
or film) would you like to see reinvent themselves in a fashion similar to that
of Dan Stevens?

This is such an awesome
question. There are so many actors who I
really wish would step out of their comfort zone. Not everyone tries new things over and over
again, and the physical transformations are impressive to a degree, but losing
weight can’t be a mask for doing the same thing you did in the last film (get
the hint, McConaughey).

I’m going with Bruce Willis,
because it was the first name that popped up in my head. He showed that he had it in him in 2011’s Moonrise Kingdom, but since then he’s
gone right back to his comfort zone of action flicks. I want him to reinvent himself so badly. Take on comedic roles (he’s so funny) or
tender roles (he’s got it) or weighty dramatic roles (can you imagine the untapped
dramatics he could bring under the right direction?). Work with Fincher or PTA or Wright or Wes
again! Where’s Scorsese to give him a
fleshy role? He loves manly actors. I really, really hope that his reunion with
M. Night Shyamalan (Labor of Love)
isn’t a poor decision, but it does seem like it could be just the nudge Willis
needs to move in the right direction in this stage in his career. Playing a widower embarking on a
cross-country trip to prove his undying love for his late wife could be ripe
with potential, but will this be early, interesting, poignant Shyamalan or
overwrought, tacky, dumb Shyamalan?

4) What are your thoughts on
that casting of Hunnam in the lead of the remake of Escape from New York?

I’m sorry, but why are they
remaking this? The original was tacky
and kind of worthless and so I see no reason to retread this dumb, contrived
and uninteresting premise. Yeah, that’s
all I think about this or the casting. I
don’t particularly care what this does to Hunnam’s career (it’ll probably sink
it), namely because I don’t really know him as an actor, so carry on.

5) Do you think superhero/comic
book films should get the big-budget treatment?

While visual effects can be
awesome to look at, a dumb script and lazy development cannot really be hidden behind
them, so I don’t think all that money should be spent in one place; hire better
writers. If you can mesh the two, then
have at it. Big-budget productions for
superheroes are pretty great because those heroes are supposed to be larger
than life…and then again, one of the best superhero movies was Unbreakable, and that was pretty low
budget. I think it depends on the hero
and the director. Some directors know
how to make a film work without the spectacles to draw our eye. It’s a case by case basis, but I don’t think
it’s a requirement. The script should
come first.

7 comments:

Hey, glad you have seen In America. And right on for giving Paddy a Fisti nom, wahoo!

Ahah, Hutcherson who?? Not a fan of Hunger Games are ya? ;) Well I’m not exactly a fan either but I have to give him credit for trying to branch out. I see what you mean about the meat of the film feeling rather cheap, it sure looks like a B movie all the way.

Heh, I don’t care for Willis anymore. I used to like him but since he’s been phoning it in so many times lately, esp in that cash grab Die Hard 5 (PLUS him asking for too much money for 5 minutes of screen time in Expendables 3), I lost interest. I LOVE LOVE Unbreakable but right now I’m not even all that excited for Labor of Love.

Yeah, I don’t know why Hollywood is hell-bent on remaking EVERY SINGLE old movies, even those that weren’t even good to begin with!

Glad you love Unbreakable too! Yep, if only Hollywood would smarten up and spend the big budget on the writers for a change. This applies to every movie, not just superhero ones.

I like Hutcherson enough, but he hasn't done anything truly noteworthy yet and I have a feeling that this film will do nothing to change that.

I love Willis. Have you seen Moonrise Kingdom? His performance is beautiful, and he snags a Fisti nom from me for that! He was also used very well in Looper that same year. He has so much talent and yet he wastes it on such crap. If the right directors got ahold of him, he could be an Oscar winner.

About Me

What is there to say? I love movies, books, music...whatever and I love talking about it. I love predicting Oscars and publishing my own personal awards (Fistis!) and I love hearing what you have to say about what I have to post. It's come a long way from it's very humble (and slightly embarrassing) beginnings and has turned into a blog that I'm very proud to be the founder of.